Newsletter No. 82 - May 2005

Chairman's Corner

At the Annual General Meeting in March, Peter Johnson retired as Chairman and I was reluctantly elected in his place. Peter had been Chairman since 1997, faithfully serving the Association and bringing in many innovations. He wished to hand on the position some three years ago and has now been able to. Thank you, Peter, for your many years as an excellent chairman of the BLHA.

Following Michael Smart's decision that, at his age, enough is enough, in the absence of any other candidate Peter has taken on the slightly less onerous roll of Treasurer. Michael was co-opted as Treasurer in an emergency following an Executive meeting in January 2001 and, despite not being an accountant or bookkeeper, he presented the audited accounts at the AGM in March that year. He has very ably continued as Treasurer until this year and he has our very grateful thanks for his generous services.

And my history? I was elected to the Executive in 1985, between 1990 and 1995, served as Chairman and subsequently continued as an elected executive member. At the AGM in 1999 I was elected Vice President and assumed that was the end of my elected membership. Along with the other three Vice Presidents I have attended as many meetings of the Executive as possible, which has been on most occasions. I thought I was now ineligible for election, but having been forcibly taken through the Constitution by our Secretary, had to agree there was no written bar to having my arm twisted, and so it was.

It is my aim that by this time next year I will have been replaced by a person younger than myself who will bring fresh ideas, energy and approach to the position. In other words, I see myself purely as a stop gap. As a Registered Charity, without three officers and an executive committee the Association cannot function so I appeal to everyone to think deeply about volunteering to serve on the executive committee, telling Margaret Yates or myself of your decision. Out of 38 member societies plus 81 individual and family members, who together must total at least 1200 people, there have to be ten who have the time and energy to volunteer. Please do so - AND DO NOT ASSUME OTHERS WILL.

I cannot end without thanking the three new members of the Executive who, assisted by the Secretary, have formed a team of Newsletter editors. We need an enjoyable and readable Newsletter three times a year, so you can receive news of and ideas from other member society's activities and pass on news about your own society to others. I am sure you will be pleased with the editorial team's results.

Cliff Debney, Chairman, BLHA

Words from the Editors

On behalf of the new editorial team I would like to welcome you to the 82nd edition of BLHA Newsletter. We have taken over responsibility of this important task from Peter Johnson, who has single-handed produced this important document over the last year. We can only hope that our efforts are equally commendable.

We would like to thank all of those who have contributed to this edition and for restricting their contributions to the 450-word limit. It was decided that such a restriction was necessary for both the sake of brevity and to prevent precious copy from "an attack of the editor's pen". An electronic version of copy is much appreciated, but please don't be deterred, we still want your news.

There has been a very interesting and varied programme of talks, presentations and visits, and your forthcoming events look set to continue this trend. In order to aid the dissemination of such valuable information to a wider audience, could you please let us know your arrangements for accommodating visitors to open meetings; prices, times etc, so we may include this in future editions.

In order to maintain an accurate list of member's details in the newsletter, it would be much appreciated if you could immediately inform us of any changes with regards to; officers, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

We hope you enjoy this 82nd edition of the newsletter and find it both informative and interesting.

Margaret Simons

In Memory of Alan Hankin

It is with great sadness that I have to inform our members of the sudden death of Alan on Friday 8th April 2005. A Lancastrian by birth, he was until very recently the very active head of the Reading Local Studies Library and was a member of the BLHA Executive from 1993-1995. The Library has lost a very valuable member of staff, but he was also known by many for his local knowledge and will be greatly missed by the local history movement in Berkshire.

A memorial service was held on 16th April 2005 at 11.00am in St Michaels Church, New Lane Hill, where a retiring collection was made for Motor Neurone Disease. I would like to express our sincere sympathies to his parents and his sister Janet at this sad time.

Margaret Simons

Requests for Information

Responses to Emily Tarrant at webdesigner@blha.org.uk or by post to Emily Tarrant, 17 Anna Pavlova Close, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 1TF.

Website Enquiry. Jane Sandy requests information about her Great Uncle George SANDY who was a licensed victualler of the RISING SUN PUBLIC HOUSE, 18 OXFORD ROAD, WOKINGHAM. It appears that he died in February 1960 leaving behind his widow, Johanna. She says, 'As a seemingly jolly fellow - ex-Army Pay Corps - I think local people might have remembered him, or at least the pub, which now no longer appears to exist!' She would like to discover more about his time in Wokingham - when he arrived there/how long he stayed, as well as wishing to know if he had any children. Prior to 1960, the last evidence she has of him is in late 1931 when he married for the second time, in Farnham RD. Naturally, the Rising Sun - and its apparent fate - is also of interest. Any information, advice or suggestions would be gratefully received.

June Sunkel has requested information about her late husband's great grandparents. "Where are Henry James Grist, died 28 April 1911 at Chamberhouse Farm, and his wife Sarah Olivia Jane Grist, died 6 May 1911 also at Chamberhouse Farm, buried?"

Chuck Jagiello is trying to find out about William Fullbrook of Thatcham and particularly if he had any children. He writes "My grandmother was Lizzie (Isabella) Fullbrook and on her marriage certificate 1901 named her father as William Fullbrook with the occupation of publican.

The Curse of the Sticky Shed

This really is a horror story. It appears that tapes, on which early electronic data was stored, have been found to be suffering from "Sticky Shed Syndrome". This is a fatal condition in which the surfaces of the tape stick together like an old roll of sellotape. I was shocked to read that all the individual population data for the 1951 census has been lost, together with parts of the 1961 and 1971 censuses. I wonder why nobody noticed this earlier and transferred the data to CDs. (Local History News No.74, Spring 2005).

Brian Boulter

Museum of English Rural Life
A New Home

Before Easter members might have seen lorries carrying farm wagons around some of the streets on the east side of Reading. These were the visible signs that the Museum of English Rural Life was, at last, moving to its new home. Everything else, of course, travelled in more discreet fashion in enclosed lorries and vans. Over the course of two months the collections - 20,000 objects, 50,000 library volumes, a million photographic prints and glass negatives, and archives filling a couple of miles of shelving - were all moved from the buildings in Whiteknights that we have occupied since the 1960s to the new base in Redlands Road. The new museum building started out as a large house built in the 1880s. The Palmer family, who owned it, passed it on to the Reading University College, as it then was, in 1910 to become a hall of residence. It remained in that use until a few years ago, and since then it has been extensively refurbished for the museum's occupation. The old house now has the reading room, which is one of the splendours of the museum. At the moment the view from it is over a sea of mud (it's raining as I write this), but the gardens will be put back together. In addition there are conference and seminar rooms for meetings and teaching. Alongside, a new block has been built to house the object collections. Here almost all the collections will be on view, either as an exhibition display or in open store, whereas in the old building most was in reserve.

We are now ready to welcome readers to the museum. The archive and library collections are available from Tuesday to Friday, 10.00 - 4.30. As before, it's going to be best if you book in advance. Contact details are given at the end of this article. If you know what you want to look at, let us know when you book, and we shall prepare for you.

There's still a lot to do to prepare the exhibition areas, but we shall be opening the doors from 5 July. Some things probably will not be quite perfectly arranged then, but, after a year's closure, we don't want to delay any longer. At about the same time we shall have a small temporary exhibition on farming during the Second World War, which will be called Dig for Victory. In the months following we shall be putting together further programmes of exhibitions and events.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the events or as a reader, and hope you will enjoy this new stage in the museum's life.

How to contact us

Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, Reading RG1 5EX. Phone 0118 378 8660 Fax 0118 378 5632 Email merl@reading.ac.uk Web www.merl.org.uk. We are at the bottom of Redlands Road, just past the university's London Road campus.

Heritage Open Days

This year the Heritage Open Days will run from Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th September 2005. See your local press/museums for further details.

The Berkshire Landscape
Saturday 12th November 2005

This is an important date for your diary. A day has been organised by Joan Dils to celebrate the work of W.G. Hoskins with a varied programme of talks on Berkshire and related topics. Speakers will include Jane Golding of the National Monuments Record Centre, Dr Margaret Yates of the Univesity of Reading, Alan Rosevear, Joan herself, and others. The event will be held at the Museum of English Rural Life and more details will be included in our September issue.

Joan Dils

The Judith Hunter Gallery

At a moving ceremony last February, one of the galleries in the "Town & Crown" museum in Windsor was named in honour of Judith Hunter. Rather than a formal brass plaque, Sally Castle of Wargrave painted a delightful sign. This featured hop vines for her thesis on beer houses, and beech leaves for her last project on Burnham Beeches. Judith's husband Rip and her daughter Karen unveiled the plaque. The dedication was the result of efforts by the Friends of the Royal Borough Museum Collection.

However there was some dismay that the future of "Town & Crown" is uncertain. The tourist information office on the ground floor of the building is under threat as it is claimed that 70% of tourists now get their information from the internet. I can imagine Judith's wry smile at the irony of it all, but she would have battled on to keep a museum in Windsor and so will the friends of the R.B.M.C.

Brian Boulter

University of Oxford, Department of Continuing Education

The Department of Continuing Education runs courses that members might be interested in. The Advanced Diploma in Local History is a one year course which is taken via the internet and accessible across the UK. www.tall.ox.ac.uk/localhistory
The Diploma in English Local History is taken over 2 years by traditional methods. www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/AwardBearing/local_history/udelh.asp

Lockinge Estate
Village Life Past and Present

An exhibition is held in March each year in the Loyd-Lindsay Rooms, Ardington depicting aspects of Lockinge Estate.

The theme this year was place names and their origins, for example, Donkey Lane in East Lockinge, Brown's Road in West Lockinge and Puddledock in Ardington. Photographs, maps and, where possible, evidence from nineteenth-century censuses or other archives were displayed to illustrate some of these local nicknames. Other, more general, maps were also on display showing farms once worked by Lockinge Estate, for example in Hagbourne, Didcot, Ilsley and Drayton. A map, which attracted a lot of interest, was the one of the two parishes of Lockinge and Ardington on which all the field names had been carefully marked by Christopher Loyd in the late 1940s soon after he inherited the estate.

As usual many photographs were available for browsing including those taken of children at Ardington School from the late 1940s until its closure in 1994 and some from both Lockinge School and Ardington School taken in the early 1900s. Copies of the nineteenth-century censuses for Lockinge and Ardington and the "biographies" collection enabled many visitors in search of their family tree to add names, dates and, in some cases, photographs of their ancestors. This is a collection of photographs of village families with descriptions of their lives either written by themselves or as captions to the pictures. The exhibition results each year in more photos being dug out of old suitcases in dusty lofts as people volunteer new information.

Ladies from the Ardington and Lockinge W.I. provided and served tea and delicious homemade cakes, which could be enjoyed in the new dining room where videos of interviews with long-serving estate workers and other elderly residents were being shown.

Christine Wardingley

Promoting Public Access to the Estates Records of King's College, Cambridge

We have received a communication from Jude Brimmer who is the Project Archivist currently engaged on the above project, she is not only working towards an online catalogue of the Estates records (to be provided through the Janus webserver, available at http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk) but will also be attempting some outreach activities.

The material is wide-ranging, as King Henry VI, the College's founder, granted to the College the many lands owned by the so-called alien priories, with the result that the collected archives span a total of 30 English counties. Further to this, the records within the collection are not limited to those accumulated since the College's foundation in 1441, but go right back to the eleventh-century, as each manor or estate transferred its early charters and deeds to the College at the foundation. Records relating to Berkshire cover a small amount of property in Cholsey, Hungerford and Wantage, but include a considerable volume of material relating to Combe, dating from 1225 up to 1900. Please visit the Project Website at http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/library/archives/college/hlfproject. The project is running for 14 months (until August 2005) and Jude would be very happy to come up with an article or exhibition about the papers, or to host a visit for a small group from the Society. For more information contact:
Jude Brimmer, Project Archivist, Archive Centre, King's College, Cambridge CB2 1ST tel. 01223 331444 fax. 01223 331891 http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/library/archives/college/hlfproject/

West Berkshire Heritage Services

Spring/Summer 2005 Lecture Series:
Thursday 19th May, 'Building Belief: Local Church Architecture', Dr. David Peacock
Thursday 16th June, Local Societies Update, £2.50.
Thursday 21s.t July History Walk: The Heights of West Berkshire, Duncan Coe, Archaeological Officer, West Bershire Heritage Service, £2.50.
For more information contact the Museum on 01635 35011 or visit www.westberkshiremuseum.org.uk

Society News

Apology: Due to unforeseen circumstances the first two contributions of Society News were omitted from the hard copy version of the 82nd edition of the BLHA Newsletter.

Margaret Simons

Finchamptstead History and Heritage Group

Our 2005 season began with a talk by Trevor Ottlewski, during which a variety of material was used to show how the development of both houses and locality can be traced. Where sufficient material survives, by combining a study of the building fabric, with the known occupants and documentary material relating to the area, it can be possible to build an interesting picture of the changes that have taken place; the examples were various, and tailored to the Finchampstead area.

In March, Peter Johnson, well known to all members of the BLHA, visited the group to provide a comprehensive look at the history of Hare Hatch and Kiln Green. His talk covered the background history of the area, its links with the Thames, and the importance of its position on the Bath Road, which led to the building of numerous substantial sized houses. He added to the established history with personal anecdotes which wee both informative and entertaining, including such tales as a resident who shot fish, and the probable existence (in the past), of a wild Puma like cat which he saw on a number of occasions.

In April, John Harrison gave us a comprehensive look at the background history of church bells and the development of English church bell ringing. This wide ranging talk covered their manufacture and tuning, their density across Britain, methods of hanging, potential weaknesses, and the popularity of church bell ringing as an interest both in the past, and the present. He also described the way in which a bell is rung, and the various patterns of ringing that produce a variety of peals.

The group's next activity is in July, and will be a guided tour around the village of Sonning, by the Sonning Histroy Group;the next meetins is on September 28th, when John Chapman will be talking about "Collecting Ephemera".

Trevor Ottlewski

Wargrave Local History Society

In January, Margaret Railton spoke about Waltham St Lawrence. Over many years, Margaret has collected illustrations of the village from 'long standing' residents. Using mostly late 19th and early 20th century examples, she took us on a 'walk' from north to south through the village as it was 100 years ago, from, the church (which in the early 1800s shared its vicar with the parish of Wargrave), and the nearby Neville Hall (once a village school, where the 'class of 1890' were seen in their 'best bib and tucker'), towards Shurlock Row. Here, Hewett's brewery - with a good water supply and over 60 public houses as outlets, including the Royal Oak at Shurlock Row - gave a lot of employment around Shurlock Row. It closed around 1911.

Ron Smith's "Edwin Lutyens and his Two Ladies" was an interesting, entertaining, illustrated talk in February. Lutyens - born in 1869 - was the country's foremost architect of his time. The family lived at Thursley, near Guildford, where he made friends with the local builder. Asked - aged 16 - what he wanted to be, his answer 'a builder like Mr Tickner' was not thought 'suitable' for his 'class'. The nearest 'appropriate' profession was an architect, so he trained in London. One of Lutyens' first professional jobs was designing Thursley village hall, with many features (eg gablet roof ends) that became characteristic of his work. Aged 20, Lutyens was invited to Henry Mangles' home. Mangles had also invited Gertrude Jekyll - then 46 - to advise on the garden layout. Gertrude was talented artistically, but when her eyesight began to fail realised she could 'paint' pictures by arranging plants. Edwin realised every house he designed would need a garden, but he knew nothing about gardens - likewise she realised every garden she designed needed a house - so for the next 40 years they built over 300 houses and gardens together. Then, somewhat later, when Victoria Sackville didn't inherit her family home near Sevenoaks, she had Lutyens design her a house at Roedean, and others in Worthing and London; Lutyens and Victoria subsequently became close. Edwin Lutyens, therefore, had 'two ladies', Gertrude and Victoria, who were each 'closer than friends'.

The March meeting was the AGM, followed by a tape - slide presentation about Wargrave history by Geoff Briggs. Progressing from the earliest known settlement site to the top of Victoria Road, Geoff had skillfully mixed historic and modern pictures to recount the history.

All interested are welcome to our meetings, which are normally in the Hannen Room, Mill Green Wargrave, starting at 8 pm. Please visit the webpages at www.wargrave.net/history.

Forthcoming Events:

June - Wargrave Village Festival
Historic Village Walks - 7th and 12th
Festival Fete and Parade - 18th

July 12 - Local History Visit to Milestones Museum
Details will be provided later.

September 13 - Hymn Writers Connected with Berkshire
John Dearing
John will tell us about several of the local hymn writers - with a chance to hear some of them!

Peter Delaney

Bracknell and District Historical Society

We started the year well when Richard Poad M.B.E. from Maidenhead Heritage Trust came and gave a talk on "The Thames from the Cotswolds to the Sea". The Thames features one way and another in many of our programmes but as well as the history of the area, accompanied by super slides, Richard introduced us to his family and the fun they had, had over many years messing about on THE river.

February was "Members Night" when the topic was "My most memorable time at school". Because of the age of our members WWII featured very prominently in most of the tales. Evacuation, bombing and shortages, all were recounted, it should have been recorded.

Colin Mitchell talked about "English Windmills" in March, again very well illustrated. Sadly there are not any windmills in Berkshire now. The two that we know existed in Bracknell are long gone, though remembered by Windmill Rd. Priestwood.

In May a party goes to Nuffield Place, to view the house, garden and hopefully bluebells.

In June we go to Newbold College to see the house, Moor Close designed by Oliver Hill and the garden, currently being restored by Dr Harry Leonard, our speaker last September.

Sheila Halsted

The Friends of Maidenhead Heritage Centre

Forthcoming events:
19 April-21 May - 'Maidenhead at War'
Saturday 7th May at 2pm - 'A last look at Bridge Road' guided Walk.
Saturday 21 May at 8pm - 'Voices in Harmony'
Wednesday 25th May & Tuesday 6th September - 'River Thames Historical Cruise'.

Friends of the Royal Borough Museum Collection

The Annual General Meeting of the Friends will be held on 19th May, at the Refectory, Tinkers Lane, Dedworth, Windsor.

History of Reading Society

On 15th September, our first meeting of the 2004-2005 Programme was a talk by Tony Tinkel, archivist at the Oratory School, Woodcote, enlightening us on the history of the school started by Cardinal Newman in Birmingham, while our meeting on 20th October was a talk by Sue Branfoot on 19thC Architecture and Decoration in Local Churches.

The guest speaker at our meeting on 17th November was Matthew Williams, Senior Curator, Reading Museum, whose subject was Reading People and Places - 1,000 Years of History in the Town. This year's Presidential Address by Joan Dils on 15th December was entitled Holidays and Holiness in Late Medieval Reading: The Evidence of St. Laurence Churchwardens' Accounts.

The meeting on 19th January turned out to be a fairly hilarious event, with Ken Wells, curator of Thames Valley Police Museum at Sulhamstead outlining local police history, whilst on 16th February Paul Lacey gave a further talk on the development of public transport in Berkshire - this time Thackray's Way, who ran a pioneer express coach operation between Reading and London 1929 - 1936.

After the Society's AGM on 16th March, our Treasurer, meteorologist John Starr, presented an enlightening talk on weather and climate and how it is likely to have affected the cultural development of our civilisation over the past few thousand years with particular reference to southern England - and hence Reading.

One more indoor meeting remains in the current programme. On 18th May, Margaret Railton will speak further on the Royal Berkshire Hospital's history. The 2004-2005 Programme will then conclude with two outside visits for members only. The first, on 15th June, is a visit to the BBC Monitoring Station at Caversham Park, while in July a guided tour is planned of the Thames Valley Police Museum at Sulhampstead.

Indoor meetings, which are held on Wednesday evenings, commencing 7.30pm prompt, at Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, adjacent to the rear of Reading Central Library, are open to all, with a small charge of £2.00 to non-members. A recent innovation has been negotiation of an arrangement for members to park their cars nearby at modest cost. Meetings usually finish about 9.00pm with tea and coffee available afterwards.

E:mail Edward.W.Hooper@btinternet.com for details of Society membership.

John Whitehead

Maidenhead Archaeological and Historical Society

Monthly evening meetings are held at King George VI Club, York Rd, Maidenhead, 7.30pm for 8.00pm., for further information, contact Mrs P. Fowler 01628 635156. For membership contact Mrs K Fergusson, 01628 630869. Chairman and Newsletter editor Mr T Jones 01628 672196.

Future Meetings
Wednesday 25th May "Pots, Wine, Gods and Heroes, Interpreting Greek Pottery", talk by Tony Rook, Author, Archaeologist
Wednesday 1st June "Gunpowder and the Plot of 1605", Annual Public Lecture, Luke Over, Hisorian
Wednesday 29th June "Robert Gibbins, Artist, Author and Adventurer", talk by M. Andrews, University of Reading
Wednesday 31st August "The BBC Monitoring Station at Caversham Park", talk A.N.Other, British Broadcasting Corporation
Wednesday 28th Sept "Prittlewell, Treasures of a Saxon King of Essex", talk by Ian Blair, Mus. of London Arch Service

Project Purley

2004 ended happily with our Christmas get-together at the Gatehouse at the kind invitation of Rick and Val Jones.

The first meeting of 2005 was an "in house" meeting. Members were asked to bring memorabilia and invited to tell us about their schooldays.

There was an amazing amount of material brought along, including school photographs and school reports, these containing interesting and encouraging comments from the teachers. Members entertained us with many memories from infant schooldays onwards, with some tales of schooldays in wartime. We all joined in general discussion on life as it was in our young days, and there was a general feeling that we all enjoyed the "best years of our lives".

In February we invited Leslie Grout to give us an illustrated talk on St George's Chapel at Windsor. Leslie's knowledge of the history of the Chapel is enormous. We were taken on a scenic tour, from the building of the first Chapel in the 13c right through to the present day, taking in detail of the beautiful decorations and furnishings, including the ancient stained glass, and the modern glass designed by John Piper. Leslie told us much of the history of events that have taken place in the Chapel over the years, and with the impending Blessing of the Royal Marriage to be held there, a most topical subject.

The March meeting began with the AGM. Jean Debney, our Chairman, gave her report for 2004. Membership has increased, and the Society has enjoyed excellent talks and there is an interesting Summer programme. The treasurer presented the accounts and reported that finances are healthy.

After closing the business meeting Jean introduced our speaker, Mrs Margaret Cubley who is a member of the Campaign to protect rural England (CPRE), which has branches in every County in England.

Mrs Cubley told us of some of the plans and activities in hand, and in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire planning applications are carefully monitored to ensure that developments respect the environment. The quiet lanes scheme is under way to encourage traffic to slow down in country lanes, where walkers and cyclists can go in safety. There was much more she talked of, which made it apparent that the CPRE is a body intent upon working hard for the good of the countryside, part of this Country's heritage.

Millie Bordiss

Future Meetings
15th April - The Manors of Purley - Jean Debney
20th May - Walkabout in Englefield
17th June - Outing to Nuffield Place
15th July - Summer Barbecue at the home of Ben and Dorothy Viljoen.

Sandhurst Historical Society

Our meetings are held at the Community Hall usually on the last Thursday of each month, commencing at 7.30 p.m.

If you are interested in history why not visit us. We always welcome visitors and you will find that we have interesting speakers and outings.

Our meetings always find time for a cup of tea, biscuit and a chat. We have a library of historical type books available for members to borrow. We have a research team who are currently working on a book detailing Sandhurst during the Second World War.

WE ARE WORTH FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT! COME AND JOIN US!

Forthcoming Events:
21st May - Fishborne, Porchester & Chischester (outing) - Mark Corney
23rd June - In Town Tonight - That's Odd - Alan Copeland
9th July - Bletchley Park (outing)
25th August - The Seymours of Elvetham - Edna Millington
29th September - AGM
For further details please ring Mrs. Zoe Travers on 01252 375579

Janice Burlton

Sonning & Sonning Eye Society

The Sonning and Sonning Eye Society was formally inaugurated in September 2004. Primarily a conservation society, it adopted the model Civic Trust constitution, so that one of the Society's major remits is "to educate the public in the geography, history, natural history and architecture of the area of benefit". The Education Panel carries out this function on a day-to-day basis and also proposed the Society should join this Association.

The Education Panel's brief includes editing the quarterly newsletter, Bridge, and maintaining the Society's web-site www.sonning.org.uk. The Panel is also responsible for arranging the programme of events and for managing each event as it happens. We aim to provide 8-10 events in a year, including talks and walks, open to members and non-members alike, as well as members' only visits and social events.

In our first year, we have had the following talks, which have all been reported in Bridge or on the web:

• Garden Treasures of Miss Gertrude Jekyll and Sir Edwin Lutyens, by Jane Balfour, garden historian (12 September 2004)
• Henry Woodyer - Gentleman Architect, by Dr John Elliott, University of Reading (28 January 2005)
• Biodiversity in Sonning and Wokingham, by Andy Glencross, Countryside Officer, Wokingham District Council (18 March 2005)

Our first walk Bricks and Bats: Habitations and Habitats of Pearson Road and southwards on 17 October 2004 was very successful, and our next walk, Words on Eye: an exploration of Sonning Eye and its surroundings, is to be held on 30th April 2005.

The Society plans to revive an Oral History Project begun some 8-10 years ago. Preliminary investigations suggest that this may actually mean a very challenging and fresh start. Yet another venture takes off on Saturday 2 July 2005, when the Society will be providing its first guided walk for another society, the Finchampstead History and Heritage Group. Over time we plan to field a small pool of informed people to take interested groups on guided walks.

As our programme tends to run from the autumn, typically starting on the same weekend as Heritage Open Days, through to the following summer, details of our 2005/06 programme will be published in the next newsletter of this Association. In the meantime, if you would like to contact us, here are some details.

Honorary Secretary, Penny Feathers 0118 9343193 penny.feathers@wrvs.org.uk
Membership Secretary, Carole Barnett 0118 9696693 gordon@barnett19.fsnet.co.uk
Education Panel, Diana Coulter 0118 9692132 diana.coulter@orange.net
Tickets for open events: Clare Grove 0118 9699383
Tony Swell 0118 9691390
Diana Coulter 0118 9692132

Diana Coulter

Theale Local History Group

The Theale Local History Group has been pleased to welcome more new members during the past year. Members have enjoyed two fascinating and comprehensive talks. In November, Joan Dils introduced us to many details of the Enclosure Act and showed us the enclosure map of 1829 for Englefield Estate and the Theale area. In 1801, Theale parish was 1436 acres and the population of Englefield and Theale was recorded as 336 persons. It was interesting that the Benyon family were amongst the best farmers in Berkshire in the 1850s and have always been in the vanguard of farming development. A piece of land was always kept to raise revenue for the relief of the poor. Enclosure maps are still legal documents and marked rights of way are still valid.

In January, Tom Hine dipped into the great wealth of detail that he is collecting about "Mills" as he introduced us to the many mills still surviving in Berkshire. 80 mills were recorded in Berkshire in the Domesday Book. The output of one grain-mill was sufficient for 50 families and the miller charged one-sixteenth of the value of the grain as the milling fee. The viability of grain mills was adversely affected by the Repeal of the Corn Laws and the demand for white bread. Most of the windmills in Britain are in eastern England while water mills are distributed all over the country.

The group has also been continuing to work on its two current local history projects. It is hoped that a small publication on the Theale War Memorial will be available before 10th July 2005 when the Theale Parish Council is mounting a display to mark the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Later, we hope to publish a book of old photographs of Theale. Most of these photographs have previously been displayed in an exhibition at Theale Green Community School in November 2002 and more recently in the new Gateway extended library in Theale.

Future meetings in 2005 will include: a visit to Nuffield Place, the former home of Lord Nuffield, on Sunday, 22 May; participation in the Theale Parish Council's activities on Sunday, 10th July; and a summer BBQ on Saturday, 16th July. Meetings with speakers will be held on Tuesday, 27th September and Tuesday, 22nd November at Theale Green Community School. Our group will also be mounting a small display at the Berkshire Family History Society's Conference at Theale Green School on Saturday, 5th October.

Andrew Spurling

Twyford & Ruscombe Local History Society

At our January meeting Tim Pulverman gave us an enlightening and immensely interesting lecture, with slides, about the work that went on in Bletchley Park during WWII. The mansion had many stables and various outbuildings and was an ideal spot to become 'Station X'. Home to the code breakers and the National Codes Centre, it had the added advantage of not being too far from London.

Brigadier Pulverman painted a full picture of the way brilliant scientists were recruited to do this vital work and the ingenious machines that were created to break the German codes. They made many interesting machines of various setting with huge number of permutations including the 'Enigma', which had great success breaking German codes.

Their first computer was immense and looked quite frightening to the layman. The work carried out at Bletchley may well have shortened the WWII by two years and therefore affected all our lives.

'The Romans and their Chestnut Trees', was the intriguing title of Chris Howkin's talk given to us in March. It was not surprising that the Romans during their occupation of Great Britain would want to establish plants and trees, the products of which they relied on in their daily lives. Chestnut fruits were staple foods for soldiers on the march, for firewood as Iron Age Britain could have been short of firewood. The Romans may also have used it for their hot-water systems, for supporting vines and for pit props in coalmines in the Forest of Dean.

Mr Howkins was a fluent speaker and delivered a wealth of information in a very interesting and amusing manner. The March AGM progressed smoothly and all members agreed to a small rise in their subscriptions to cover the cost of an increased rent.

Brian Boulter will be welcomed as our April speaker and his subject will be 'The Stage Coach Era'.

Betty Cossey.

Forthcoming Meetings:
May - Slides of Ruscombe and Twyford villages - Paddy Derry
13.06.05 - 'The History of English Furniture' - David Embling
16.07.05 - Ploughman's Lunch
12.09.05 - 'The Hurst I Remember' - John Barfoot
10.10.05 - 'Around Fleet Street' - John Garrod
14.11.05 - 'Printed Ephemera: What is it, and what to do with it - Martin Andrews

Winnersh & District Historical Society

The inaugural meeting of the society was held on Monday 18th April 2005 and they are soon to join the BLHA. A booklet 'Winnersh Reflections' is available at a cost of £3.25 per copy including p&p, for multiple copies please apply. Chairman, Brian Eighteen, 50 Watmore Lane, Winnersh Berks RG41 5JT 0118 978 4499 brian@eighteen3067.freeserve.co.uk

Wokingham History Group

In spite of the weather, we had a large audience at our January meeting when Colin Mitchell shared his enthusiasm for Water Mills and well illustrated their history. The range of uses extended beyond grinding cereals for flour to textile fulling, metal works, paper manufacture and sawing timber. Often these formed a process of evolution at a single mill. Local examples included the Bisham mills, established by the Knights Templar, and at Mapledurham, which still has parts from the early 15th century, the mill prospered until US grain imports caused its decline in the early 20th century. Unfortunately little is documented for our local Embrook mill. A permanent repository for the Mills Archive Trust has been set up in Reading.

Our February meeting was of two parts. Ken Goatley's "People and Places in Wokingham" gave us post-war events and anecdotes; the first fluorescent lighting in 1949, a burst water main in Peach Street erupting like a fountain, and a fire at the chair factory in Denton Road, all came vividly back to life.

This was followed by a recording made by the late Gerry Yewlett, a flight engineer, who recalled the reality of a situation relevant to the high mortality rate of Bomber Command. Taking off for an Osnabruch target, an explosion shook the plane. With bombs on board, they had to land, but the undercarriage had lost its hydraulic fuel. After heading out to sea to jettison fuel, with engines overheated from encircling, an emergency landing was successful. Fortunately he escaped and ran up a hillside minutes before the bombs went off. After sometime in hospital, recovering from burns and shock he returned to duty.

Part two of "Curiosities in the Chilterns" entertained us in March. Alan Copeland took us from Marlow to Reading, a journey of many surprising features, their secret history illuminated by his research.

Fortcoming Meetings
9th May - "Dating old Photographs" - Tom Doig
13th June - "Aspects of the English Civil War" Dennis Wraight
11th July - AGM & "Secrets of the Box" - Tony Weston

Barbara Young

Report from BLHA Website

The 'hit counter', gives the overall total hits as 5625

Unique Visitors*

* Unique visitors means it is not counting when a visitor returns to the site.

Geographical Breakdown (of last 100 visitors)

The statistical analysis shows that the most popular pages on the website, (apart from the home page) are the Links page and the Journal.

Queries received through the website

From June 2004 to April 2005 the total number of enquiries via the website totals 19.

Emily Tarrant, websitedesigner@blha.org.uk